Diplomatic Missions: Unpaid Congestion Charges and Parking Fines Debate
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Lord Avebury
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Diplomatic Missions: Unpaid Congestion Charges and Parking Fines
Lord Avebury Excerpts(13 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Strathclyde
My Lords, my sense is that the House would like to hear from my noble friend Lord Tebbit and then from my noble friend Lord Avebury.
Earl Attlee
My Lords, I am sure that my noble friend knows the details of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, under which diplomatic cars are inviolable. Therefore, we cannot clamp them.
Lord Avebury
My Lords, perhaps I may make a helpful suggestion. The Government should seek statutory power to tow away any vehicle that has been the subject of several previous parking fines that remain unpaid.
Earl Attlee
My Lords, I repeat the point that I just made. Diplomatic cars are inviolable. The other problem is that we could get into a tit-for-tat situation with our diplomats overseas. I suggest that that would not be a sensible course of action. It would be much better to continue to apply the pressure that we do.